Thirteen of the top prospects in this year's draft and a host of media had lunch and then did interviews on the roof top of the Empress boat of the Gateway Clipper fleet. It's a beautiful afternoon in Pittsburgh, but it was incredibly hot and muggy on the roof top.

Most of the media members must have thought the cups of water had vodka in them, because they were chugging them left and right. The 13 young men: Nail Yakupov, Ryan Murray, Mikhail Grigorenko, Alex Galchenyuk, Morgan Reilly, Cody Ceci, Radek Faksa, Olli Maatta, Jacob Trouba, Griffin Reinhart, Matt Dumba (ranked 1st to 11th by central scouting) and the top ranked European, Filip Forsberg and the #1 ranked North American goalie, Malcolm Subban went through a few bottles of water while answering numerous questions.

Last year in Minnesota Stu MacGregor said the decision to take Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was an easy one. In 2010, when he chose Taylor Hall over Tyler Seguin, he said the same thing, but this year has been much different. I chatted with the Oilers head scout about how different this year's first overall selection has been compared to the previous two, and got his thoughts on drafting by position, and projecting a player's future.

Do the Edmonton Oilers need a mobile, puck-moving defenseman who can log big minutes and be a fixture in their top four for the next decade? Sure they do. Do they need to use the first overall pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft to acquire that player? No they don't.

We are 43 hours away from the Oilers calling out the first pick of the draft for the third consecutive year, and while their positioning in the draft is the same, there are many differences surrounding the team this time around.

Fans aren't as excited about this pick, not because he won't be a great player, but because you've been through this already, and frankly all of you are hoping you won't have to experience this for at least another 20-25 years.

If the Oilers are in this situation again, in the near future, then something is seriously wrong.

Despite the fact that Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins were defeated tonight in their bids for glory at the NHL awards we must put this in perspective. The two wonder studs are no joke - and most teams in the league would trade away most of everything for either of them.

To have BOTH players in the lineup is an embarassment of riches that will be discussed in hushed and reverent tones by panels of talking heads for a long, long time.